Sign Up for Our Living with Diabetes Newsletter

Thanks for signing up!

Since I was a young, Pennsylvanian farm girl and through my 26 years of marriage, I’ve always had pets to love and care for. One of my favorite pets have been guinea pigs. They are “little piggies” to me, but raising them brought awareness to my own little piggies (my feet), and it’s made me more aware of how my husband cares for his feet, especially since he has type 2 diabetes.

Not only do guinea pigs eat a healthy diet with lots of greens and vegetables, they are wonderful pets and can teach lessons to both diabetics and non-diabetics alike.

Foot care is very important for a diabetic. You feet can tell a lot about your overall health, and is important for animals as well, as I learned over the past few weeks.

After returning from a camping trip at the end of May, I realized that one of my female guinea pigs had become pregnant. It was a pleasant surprise, but her feet problems and the pregnancy had complicated matters. With a guinea pig, you learn that when they get sick or have an injury, they often fail to recover.

My guinea pig lived just long enough to nurse the baby for its first three weeks, leaving “Little Snickers” to learn life on her own and learn to drink from a water bottle. Then, one morning, her foot began to bleed and she went and crawled to the corner. I tended to her wound but she wasn’t feeling well. She died later in the day, leaving an orphan to fend for its own.

For diabetics, improper foot care and poor self-examinations can cause serious problems. Having annual physical exams of the feet along with education about caring for them is important. Wearing proper footwear and proper fitting shoes is also important.

One such an example of improper diabetic care comes from my husband’s Don’s brother Butch, who has had numerous amputations. Butch has lost toes, one foot, and now has lost his entire lower leg. In the family, he has lost cousins, aunts, and uncles to diabetes, and many of them had amputations due to improper care. For diabetics, it usually starts with the feet. Caring for the first cut or scratch is imperative!

Diabetics should look for deformities, skin changes, ulcers, calluses, and cuts on their feet. A loss of sensation, also known as neuropathy, or circulation problems can be diagnosed by a doctor. Length, width, and arch length measurements are needed for perfect shoe fitting and custom inserts to help with foot pressure may help protect and secure the feet as well.

There are many things that diabetics can do to properly care for your feet:

* Take care of your diabetes -- Work with your health care team to keep your blood glucose levels in your target range.

* Check your feet daily -- Look for red spots, cuts, swelling and blisters. Use a mirror to see the bottom of your feet.

* Be more active -- Plan a physical activity program with your health team.

* Ask your doctor about Medicare coverage for special shoes, if needed.

* Keep your skin soft and smooth – Use a thin base of lotion over the tops and bottom, but not between the toes.

* Trim toenails carefully -- Trim straight across and file edges with an emery board or a nail file.

* Wear shoes and socks at all times -- Don’t walk barefoot. Wear well-fitting shoes to protect the feet and check inside your shoes before putting them on. You never know what is lurking in there!

* Protect your feet from hot and cold -- Don’t use hot water bottles, heating pads, or electric blankets on the feet.

*Keep the blood flowing to your feet -- When sitting, elevate them. Exercise the feet by wiggling your toes and moving your ankles up and down for 5 minutes, two to three times a day. Don’t cross your legs.

*Get started now -- Take good care of your feet starting today, and set a time every day to check your feet. Bedtime is a great time to do this.

In the meantime, I know that hugs improve health! I’ll be hugging “Little Snickers” who has nicely adapted with an older litter of “little piggies”. I will also enjoy soaking my own “little piggies” in the foot bath today to do my part. How are your little piggies?

Important: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not Everyday Health. See More

Any opinions, advice, statements, services, advertisements, offers or other information or content expressed or made available through the Sites by third parties, including information providers, are those of the respective authors or distributors and not Everyday Health. Neither Everyday Health, its Licensors nor any third-party content providers guarantee the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any content. Furthermore, neither Everyday Health nor its Licensors endorse or are responsible for the accuracy and reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on any of the Sites or Services by anyone other than an authorized Everyday Health or Licensor representative while acting in his/her official capacity. You may be exposed through the Sites or Services to content that violates our policies, is sexually explicit or is otherwise offensive. You access the Sites and Services at your own risk. We take no responsibility for your exposure to third party content on the Sites or the Services. Everyday Health and its Licensors do not assume, and expressly disclaim, any obligation to obtain and include any information other than that provided to it by its third party sources. It should be understood that we do not advocate the use of any product or procedure described in the Sites or through the Services, nor are we responsible for misuse of a product or procedure due to typographical error. See Less